THE UK’s leading industry-backed training centre for thermal insulation apprentices has been officially opened following a £500,000 expansion and re-development programme.
The newly extended Thermal Insulation Contractors Association (TICA) training facility on Yarm Road Business Park, Darlington, provides bespoke work-based learning for young people in the expanding field of thermal insulation engineering.
The not-for-profit trade association, formed to represent organisations within the industrial and commercial insulation industry, offers support to its members through high level training providing skilled engineers for key positions within the construction sector.
Qualified thermal insulators specialise in the insulation of hot and cold pipework, ductwork and vessels, working on sites, including oil refineries, power stations, chemical plants, ships, offices, factories, hospitals, schools and supermarkets.
The latest £500,000 investment has enabled TICA to:
• add a second storey to the existing training suite
• build an extension to the workshop
• create more floor space for tuition
• develop a new functional skills and ICT suite
• create an open plan office for tutors with complete visibility to the workshop floor
• construct a purpose-built canteen facility and enhanced cloakroom and lockers for apprentices.
TICA chief executive Marion Marsland said: “Following a number of years of good governance, as a membership organisation, TICA made the decision to invest further significant sums into its bespoke training facility in Darlington.
“The additional floor space has facilitated a greater variety of surfaces on which apprentices can be trained to apply insulation to a wider variety of complex shapes.
“A further advantage of enhancing our own facility has meant that Scottish apprentices – normally trained at a local construction college in Glasgow – are able to come to our centre to benefit from greater resources and more in-depth bespoke tuition.”
With a membership of over 75 UK-based insulation contracting companies, TICA currently trains between 80 and 120 apprentices each year providing them with a framework of qualifications, including NVQ level 2 and 3, safety passport, functional skills, employment rights and responsibilities and a technical certificate.
They also offer employers the opportunity to up-skill employees with certificates in confined space training, health and safety, working at heights (PASMA) and asbestos awareness.
“Having experienced Ofsted inspections and been given regular feedback through our further education partners, it became apparent that we needed to show progression within our industry training,” said Mrs Marsland.
“Our level 3 qualification has been successfully piloted over the past few months, using new equipment, allowing a greater mix of skills and numbers within a single workshop environment.
“The redevelopment will allow for different skill levels to be taught in the same environment and having all our UK apprentices trained in the same facility will ensure a consistent and uniform quality of skills entering into our sector on an annual basis, helping create awareness to our younger apprentices of opportunities available to them in the future throughout the whole of the UK and beyond.
“We now have a facility that is rich in resources, staffing and facilities, where we are able to consistently produce very high quality training with quality statistics that are well above the national average for apprenticeships.”
The new bespoke premises have been funded through membership contributions, voluntary member training levies and shrewd financial management of the training facility over a number of years.
“Since opening TICA House, our National Training Centre in Darlington in 2001, our members have invested over £1m in services and resources,” said Mrs Marsland.
“This is mainly due to the excellent governance of our Trade Association, but also the highly successful cross collaboration with our associate members supplying the centre with free materials for use in our training workshops and providing additional support to train within the sector.”
The TICA training facility is available to TICA members to train new entrants to a national standard. Non-member companies can also access training and are regularly informed of opportunities through mailshots and regional meetings.
As a TICA member, voluntary training levies (VTL) are paid as part of a subscription, calculated on an annual return and are dependent on the number of operatives employed in the business – much like the Construction Industry Training Board levies.
Members enjoy the benefit of training with little or, in many instances, no additional costs and non-members who do not pay subscription or VTL’s can also access training but are required to contribute towards the costs.
“Our industry clients are assured that if they have thermal insulation engineers working on their site, who are indentured tradesmen with an NVQ Level 2 or 3 from our centre in Darlington, they have a standard of training that is at the very top of our trade and of what is available.
“It also demonstrates that the member company is making voluntary training payments to their association and takes its responsibility for training and quality apprenticeships in their business very seriously – something that a number of construction clients are asking our members as part of their PQQs.”
Members have access to an apprenticeship recruitment process, where any vacancies they have as a contracting company are notified to TICA, who then advertise them on behalf of that member, filtering all responses and interviewing with the member using a team of regional training officers.
Funding for apprentices is obtained via regional partnership agreements with the Skills Funding Agency, which is routed through larger partners to deliver funds directly to the centre, and are topped up with members’ annual levies.
Up to 80 per cent of all courses delivered receive funding, ranging from 40 per cent through to 100 per cent and, in cases where no funding is available, the association continually looks for ways of developing funds to allow access to members without any additional costs.
“TICA is the only trade association covering the thermal insulation of pipework, ductwork and vessels and our training facility is unique in its existence,” said Mrs Marsland.
“Having conducted a skills survey and published results back to our members during March of this year, it is well known that our industry has an ageing workforce and the potential for a skills shortage, like many construction related specialist industries. The role of TICA is to ensure that members have access to a training programme to support their businesses without them having to have individual resources for recruitment or training. We see this service as a benefit to the membership.”
TICA is currently offering Level 2 and Level 3 apprenticeships, up-skilling for any tradesman and adult assessment NVQ only qualifications for operatives aged over 25, with more than five years proven work experience within insulation contracting.
“We were delighted to be able to welcome Jenny Chapman MP for Darlington, council members, representatives from the Construction Industry Training Board, our funding partners from Darlington College, staff and apprentices to the opening of our new facility,” added Mrs Marsland.
“We now have in Darlington a leading National Training Centre of excellence to develop and train thermal insulation apprentices to the highest standards and a superb track record of results that are the envy of any specialist sub-contracting industry in the UK today.”